All works of art should begin... at the end.
Edgar Allan Poe

Illusion made real

What is called a sincere work is one that is endowed with enough strength to give reality to an illusion.
Max Jacob

Weapon in our hands

No, painting is not made to decorate apartments, it's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.
Pablo Picasso

In the midst of the confusions of nature one person trusting eternally in another,
and making himself and the other secure through faith.
Oskar Kokoschka

Quote from a movie

I've always believed that a portrait captures a person far better than a photograph.
It truly takes a human being to really see a human being.
Monster's ball (2001)

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Bertrand Russell

Sense of wonder

The dignity of the artist lies in his duty
of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world.
Marc Chagall

How about some poetry?

This is a part from Baudelaire's Poison. In this poem,he talks about different kinds of poisons like wine and opium,and after that comes my favorite part :

Tout cela ne vaut pas le poison qui découle
De tes yeux, de tes yeux verts,
Lacs où mon âme tremble et se voit à l'envers...
Mes songes viennent en foule
Pour se désaltérer à ces gouffres amers.

I hate translations because I know that it is almost impossible to make a proper one in poetry, but this one is not that bad:

Dread poisons, but more dread the poisoned well
of thy green eyes accurst;
tarns where I watch my trembling soul, reversed
my dreams innumerable
throng to those bitter gulfs to slake their thirst.

If anyone has a favorite verse or a poem I would be happy to see it, feel free to post it as a comment.

Flower clouds

While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality...
true art lies in a reality that is felt."
Odilon Redon

Rothko

Look, it's my misery that I have to paint this kind of painting, it's your misery that you have to love it, and the price of the misery is thirteen hundred and fifty dollars.
Mark Rothko

Silence

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.
Jean Arp

Inner need

That is beautiful which is produced by the inner need.
Wassily Kandinsky

Easy

Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop.
Michelangelo

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.
John Singer Sargent

Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.
Gustave Flaubert

The artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.
Auguste Rodin

Turner's Temeraire

A ship in harbor is safe...
but that is not what ships are for.
Thomas Aquinas

Art is never finished, only abandoned.
Leonardo da Vinci

Interesting definition of art

This continuous monologue that seeks to become a dialogue...
Zoltan Galos